Article-feeding means.



W. A. COURTLAND.

ARTICLE FEEDING MEANS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 4. 1915. 1,230,870. Patented June 26, 1917.

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W. A. COURTLAND.

ARTICLE FEEDING MEANS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 4. 1915.

1,230,870. Patented June 26, 1917;

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W. A. COURTLAND.

ARTICLE FEEDING MEANS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 4. 1915. 1,230,870. Patented June 26,1917.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

UNITED STATES PATENT ormon WILLIAM A. COURTLAND, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN PIN COMPANY, or WATEKBURY, CONNECTICUT,

A. CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

ARTICLE-FEEDING MEANS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 26, 1917.

Application filed September 4, 1915. Serial No. 49,064.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM A. Counn LAND, a citizen of the United States, residing in the borough of Brooklyn, county of Kings, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Article-Feeding Means, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates more especially to safety pin machines, and has for its primary object to provide an improved construction, combination and arrangement of parts in a machine of this character for feeding caps and the like in a predetermined order. One of the objects of the present invention is to provide an article holder of improved construction embodying a plurality of chambers or receptacles. Another object is to provide improved means for moving said article holder to bring said chambers or receptacles successively into register with a chute which delivers them to mechanism for applying them separately to safety pin blanks such for example, as that shown and described in my copending application, Serial Number 30,762, filed on May 27th, 1915. Other and further objects will appear in the specification and be pointed out in the appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawings in which my invention is adapted to a safety pin machine.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of portions of a safety pin machine embodying my improve Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a plan View of the lower end of the shield-feeding chute;

Fig. 5 is a section on the line V-V, Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is an enlarged vertical section of the shield container;

Fig. 7 is a bottom plan view of the same;

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary top plan view of the container supporting plate;

Fig. 9 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the container;

Fig. 10 shows in detail one of the latches used for holding, the container in desired positions.

Fig. 11 is a side elevation of the lower by a cam 70. Said cam able means, not shown on the drawings.

otally connected to end of the chute and shield-feeding mechanism, parts being broken away and parts shown in section.

Referring first to Fig. 1 of the drawings, my copending application, Serial Number 30,762, refers to a cam shaft 13 which derives its power from a main drive shaft 14 by means of bevel gears 15. Said shaft 14 has keyed thereto a worm gear 16 which operates suitable mechanism for conveying safety pins from the necking apparatus which is shown and described in said application. Prior to its delivery to this conveyer however, the necked blank is delivered to the capping mechanism which, as shown and described in the above mentioned application, includes the following parts.

Referring to Fig. 3, a bracket 65 is mounted upon a portion of the frame and has secured thereto one end of a spring 66, the other end of said spring being connected to a pin 67 on a slide 68, which is reciprocated is keyed to the cam shaft 14 and comprises inner, intermediate and outer runs. The slide 68 is provided with a cap holding recess at its inner end, into which the caps are separately discharged at certain times during the operation of a cam-operated slide 68 as shown and described more fully in my above identified copending application. Adjacent the lower end of the section 64 of the chute, a leaf spring 7 2 carries a spur 74 (see Fig. 4) which projects through the side wall of the chute. The inner end of said spur is beveled and projects from the inner wall sufficiently to yieldably retain the caps in the chute. Said section 64 of the chute carries a laterally projecting guide 75 within which reciprocates a slide 76, said slide being suitably connected to the upper arm 7 7 (see Fig. 3) of a lever which is journaled on a shaft 78 and provided with a cam arm 79 carrying a cam roller 80 operated by a cam 81. Roller 80 is pressed to the cam 81 by yield- A Fig. 4) which is pivthe lower end of slide 76 is pressed by a spring 85 and carries at its lower end a spur 86 which is adapted to engage the lowest cap in the chute and to force it over the yieldable spur 74. A transverse pin 87 projects on opposite sides of the lower end of feed finger 84. Near feed finger 84 (see cam 111 keyed to cam shaft 13.

the end of the downward movement of slide 76, the pin 87 on one side rides over awedgeshapedbarrier 88 and elevates the spur. 86 sufliciently torelease the cap into recess 71 in slide 68. On the return stroke of said feed finger, the oppositely projecting endof pin 87 rides over a strip 89 until it reaches arecess 90, into which itdrops to bring the spur 86 into engagement with the next lower cap or shield. As shown in Fig. 3, section 6 1. of thechute. isgconnectedby a turn 91 with anupper section92 of the chute which leads from a base plate 93 which is mounted on a bracket 94 above thesafetyv pin machine. A reinforcement 95 .isarranged between the, bracket 91 andchute section 92. Bracket. 91 is provided with a boss 96 and a lower bracket arm .97 within which is ,journaled averticalshaft 98 to which is keyed a ratchet 99. As shown best in Figs. 1 and 3, ratchet 991 is periodically operated. by a pawl 1100 .j ourna'led ,on a pin 101 carried by a radial arm 102 which is journaled freely on'thefshaft98. A'rod .103 which is reciprocablymounted ina guide 10115 connected to the pin 101 and serves to drive the pawl 100, As shown in Fig. 1, the guide 10 1 is T -shaped, acollar 105 being mounted on the rod 103 to prevent-the rod from en tering too far into the guide underthe ,action of=a spring 105 (F ig.'2). 'A reciprocatory rod106 which is spaced from the rod 103, but. in alinement therewith is connected'at107; (see Fig. 2) to the upper arm 108 of'a lever which is pivoted at 109-and providedwitha camarm 110 operated by a Cam lever 108 -110 is supported by abracket arm 112 which projects laterallyfrom anupright 113 which carries-the T-shaped gnidelOi It will. be'seen by this;jdescriptioirthat,cam 111 ,operates; the. sliding, bar 106 every time @a safety pin is completed. From aninspection of} Fig. 6 it will beseen; that the shaft 98 is provided with a collar 114: to prevent its-being lifted inv its bearings, A key .115 carriedby the upper endiof the shaft fits a slot in th lower end of the tubular 1-16 :of the lio lder, 1 '17. Said holder consists of a cylindrical body-.connectedby radially disposed, spokes 118 with the centralhub portions 119 which are rigidly connected to the tubular aXis116. As shown i i- Fig. ,6, the lower hub portion 119 is provided with a reduced end 120upon whichisvjournale'd a bottom plate on disk 121', said plate being mov'ably supported by an annular flange 122 which is rigidly 1 secured ,to the reduced end 120. ,As shownin Figs. 6 and 7 the. cylindrical portion of the holder is provided; with a plurality of shield-containing channels or chambers 123 which extend throughout the length ofsaid. cylindrical portionj Said chambers areadapted to receive andhold a supply of safety pin shields in the prededisposed to' receive "articles termined'order in which they are intro duced thereinto. Opening through the plate or disk 121, is an aperture which ;conforms to the. cross-section of each of these passageways or chambers. It will be seen therefore that whenever such opening of the disk 121 is in register with the upper out of register with any of thdchanibers 123. A detail of one of these 'lz'itches will serve for both. and i'sj shown in Fig. 10'. Thus a stud 12(ifsecures the flange 127]to base plate 121. .Aspring housing 128 which is carried by the flange l27,"'c'ontains a spring- .129 ,which is interposed floetw'eeii a c'ollar 13O and the outer wall 1310f the housing. As 'shownfinFig. 1, a 'twopiece slide bar 132 is movably connected at 133 to a connecting rod 134. Said bar 132 is reciprocably 'nioi'lnt ed, in the shank po'rtion ofthe T-shap'ed slide 10 1', and is of sufli'cient size to fill thegap between 'the rods 103 and 106. so fthat when hasbeen moved toward the right, a re'cipi o'catory movementwof the rod 106.will effect a movement of'the ratchet 99 a distancef'of onetooth'which is sufficient to move an em'pty chamber of theholder away from. the upper end of the chute, and

to bring 'a fiuedehambermm register therewith, which immediately d scharges lDtO:

said chute. ,The upper end 135 of an irregularly bent rod isconnected to the rod 134.

The lower end 136 thereof (see Fig. ,5) is connected byan angula-rly bent portion 137 with the upper section 135, said portion 137 being'journaled on a vpin,1 38 carried by a bracket 139. A spring 140 serves to normally press the lowermost portion 136 of said rod against a shield 1 11 if therefisone present. 'In the event o'fthere being no shield at this point in th'e chute, spring 1 10 eifects displacementof the slide 132', so

that it is interposed between rods 103 and 1 06. In consequence, the next inove'ment' cam bar 1'10 c a'uses a movement of the holder as herein'before mentioned.

Iclaim: M

1. In a achine of the .jchgiractr 'described, an article holder}, a-chiit'e. suitably m said article holder, means for detecting th'e jpresyence of an article in said chute, andmeans controlled by said detecting means for movpsi ing said holder into position to discharge into said chute.

2. In a machine of the character described, the combination with a feed chute, of an articleholder provided with a plurality of chambers or passages adapted to be successively brought into communication with said chute, means for moving said article holder and means depending on the presence of an article in said chute for controlling the movement of said article-holder moving means.

In a machine of the character described, a feed chute, a detector finger suitably mounted and arranged to be engaged by an article in said chute, an article-holder provided with a plurality of chambers or passages, said article-holder being suitably mounted to move said chambers or passages successively into position to communicate with said chute, and means under the control of said detector finger for imparting a step by step movement to said article holder.

4. In a machine of the character described, a feed chute, a rotary barrel provided with a plurality of article holding chambers, said barrel being mounted to turn on an axis suitably disposed to bring said chambers successively into position to discharge into said chute, power driven means for imparting a step by step movement to said barrel, said means including a detector for determining the presence or absence of articles in said chute, and an instrumentality operated by said detector to render said step by step means operative or inoperative.

5. In a machine of the character described, the combination with a feed chute, of means for feeding articles from said chute, means adapted to deliver successive supplies of articles to said chute, and means for periodically operating said article-delivering means including a finger normally held by an article in said chute in position to render said periodic operating means inoperative and adapted to render said periodic operating means operative whensaid finger is released.

6. In a machine of the character described,

the combination with a feed chute, of means for feeding articles from said chute, means adapted to deliver successive supplies of articles to said chute, and means for periodically operating said article delivering means including a finger normally held by an article in said chute to render said operating means inoperative and adapted to render said operating means operative when said finger is released, said operating means including a movable element connected to and moved by said finger into successive positions to render said operating means operative or inoperative.

7. In a machine of the character described, the combination of a chute for articles to be fed, a support arranged adjacent the upper end of said chute, a holder provided with a plurality of chambers for articles to be fed, said holder being j ournaled on said support and arranged to bring said chambers or passages successively into register with the upper end of said chute, a ratchet carried by said holder, a pawl for operating said ratchet, means for driving said pawl, and means actuated by articles in said chute for controlling said driving means.

8. In a machine of the character described, the combination with a chute, of means for detecting the presence of an article in said chute, a support arranged adjacent the upper end of said chute, a shaft journaled in said support, a ratchet mounted on said shaft, a pawl for operating said ratchet, a reciprocable power driven bar normally disconnected from said pawl, means controlled by said detecting means for transmitting power from said reciprocable bar to said pawl, and a holder for articles provided with chambers or passages adapted by said ratchet to be moved successively into register with. the upper end of said chute.

l/VILLIAM A. COURTLAND.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

